Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Well-being 2023-2025, published by his Department on 1 August 2023. [37564/23]

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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14. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Well-being 2023-2025, published by his Department on 1 August 2023. [37565/23]

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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15. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the child poverty and well-being unit. [41222/23]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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16. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the child poverty unit in his Department. [42343/23]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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17. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the child poverty unit in his Department. [42345/23]

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity)
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18. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the child poverty and well-being unit. [42486/23]

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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19. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the child poverty and well-being unit. [42508/23]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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20. To ask the Taoiseach for an update on the work of the child poverty unit in his Department. [42620/23]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 20, inclusive, together.

In December, I announced my intention to set up a child poverty unit in the Department of the Taoiseach. I am happy to confirm that the child poverty and well-being programme office is now fully operational and on 1 August, published its initial work programme for the next two and a half years, From Poverty to Potential: A Programme Plan for Child Poverty and Well-being 2023-2025.

The initial programme focuses on six areas that will have the greatest effect on the lives of children who experience poverty. These are: income supports and joblessness; early learning and childcare; reducing the cost of education; family homelessness; consolidating and integrating family and parental support, health and well-being; and enhancing participation in culture, arts and sport for children and young people affected by disadvantage. The six areas were identified through extensive consultation with other Departments and Government agencies and representatives from relevant NGOs.

Importantly, the themes were also informed by information on what is important to children gathered through the established Government child participation structures.

As outlined in the plan, the role of the child poverty and well-being programme office is to drive implementation of a broad range of commitments. The office will also undertake a small number of strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing the efficiency and efficacy of cross-government responses to child poverty. This includes putting a specific focus on child poverty at budget time. The annual budget is a critical moment in which the Government articulates its ambitions and plans for the coming year.

Given the Government’s commitment to reducing child poverty and improving child well-being, I know that my other Cabinet colleagues are also looking at what can be achieved in budget 2024.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the child poverty unit and the report that it issued. I met the Society of St. Vincent de Paul last week. It reported that in conjunction with the elimination of fees for school books and the increase of €100 in the back-to-school allowance, it had seen a 20% reduction in requests for assistance in regard to the return to school. It is an example of how Government measures can assist with child poverty.

The Taoiseach is aware that we have many measures in place. These include the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, the area-based child poverty initiatives and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien’s empowering community projects. However, many of these need an area focus. There are 160 electoral districts in this country of 3,500 with a Pobal deprivation index of minus 15. There must be area-based interventions by senior decision-makers including the HSE, Tusla and the Department of Education, on the ground and there must be an end to the one-size-fits-all approach to the those 160 electoral districts with persistent and consistent poverty. It is within the Government’s power to try to eliminate child poverty and those places that are severely impacted by it. One such example is the roll-out of the north-east inner city model for multidisciplinary supports in schools in the Department of Education. That Department is an example of an entity that, were it to be given a local focus, could respond to a local need in one area and similar ones across the country and could change the way it does business to support children in poverty.

I have been quite happy to lobby on behalf of electoral districts in my area that need support but it should not be about lobbying. If an area goes into a Pobal deprivation index of minus 15 or minus 20, there should be an automatic range of packages put in place. We should not tolerate any part of Ireland having a deprivation index of minus 33.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I also welcome the first programme plan for child well-being. I also have concerns. The Government has made good strides, particularly on DEIS schools which is close to my heart and County Carlow was very lucky as we got 13 DEIS-status schools. I have an issue with DEIS 1 and DEIS 2, the first for boys and the second for girls; I think they should be all DEIS. We should look at all schools to have DEIS status in order that every child who goes to school gets a hot meal.

In Carlow, we have set up a soup kitchen, St. Clare's Hospitality Kitchen. There are volunteers who do great work. Around 120 meals go out every week to children and families, together with about 80 food parcels. But there is no Government funding for soup kitchens. There is no help whatever from the Government to support the volunteers, the good people who set up these soup kitchens, who fundraise and do their best to make sure children and families are not going hungry. I ask that it be included in the budget.

I also welcome the great announcement of free books for primary schools. I believe it should be extended to secondary schools. We speak about children but we have no women's refuge in Carlow. While we are getting one, we need to it really urgently. I have families coming in to me with young children who are being evicted. They cannot find a place to rent. I and the Government need to get the women's refuge up and running in Carlow. We all met the childcare providers last week and spoke about the challenges that exist. I ask that core funding be looked at in the budget. One other thing, which is very important, is that children with disabilities are facing huge challenges accessing services. Community health care organisation, CHO 5 has faced huge challenges and I ask that we look at this in the budget.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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This Saturday, I hope we will see thousands of people on the streets at the cost of living demonstration, assembling at 1 o'clock at Parnell Square and marching to the Dáil. There will many people there, including pensioners, trade unionists, students, anti-poverty groups and housing advocacy groups. They will have many different reasons for marching over the cost-of-living and housing crisis. Undoubtedly, one of the most abhorrent aspects of the cost-of-living and housing crisis is child poverty and child homelessness. Surely the Taoiseach would acknowledge that it is a shameful indictment of the Government that the latest homeless figures show the highest level of child homelessness the country has ever seen. That figure has got worse every month since the Government lifted the eviction ban and is set to get worse still, as the number of notices to quit that are being served on families has also increased dramatically over recent months. I ask the Taoiseach when he is going to take action, or what action he intends to take, to stop more children being driven into homelessness and to prevent the damage that is done to children languishing in homelessness or set to go into it, or the terror. I am dealing with many families where the children are literally paralysed with fear because they know in a few weeks or a couple of months, they are likely to end up homeless. What is the Taoiseach going to do to stop it? It is just getting worse. There is no solution being offered by the Government, none at all. I appeal to the Taoiseach to respond to an absolutely diabolical, unacceptable, shameful situation of our children being driven every day, every week into the terror of homelessness.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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There was a striking article by Fintan O'Toole in today's edition of The Irish Timeswhere he is drawing upon research by the OECD to put the fiscal cost of child poverty in Ireland at something like €20 billion, around the scale of the health budget on a yearly basis. That, of course, is on top of the moral shame and human impact of people growing up in poverty and all the impact it has on people. One aspect of that which Deputy Boyd Barrett has spoken about is the whole question of homelessness. There have been lots of studies now of the psychological, mental and physical impact on children growing up in homelessness. It is devastating and has an impact well beyond the point at which they manage to get out of homelessness, perhaps a year or two or three years after going into it. How much is going to be too much for the Government? A striking thing from the homeless figures last week is that almost 4,000 children are homeless now. It is the highest number of children homeless since August 2019. Over the course of the winter, are we going to see the figure going up towards the 5,000 mark? How much is going to be too much for this Government? What would cause the Government to say, "stop, enough children are homeless," to reinstate the eviction ban and use the time allowed by that to do the measures that will actually make a fundamental difference in terms of proper rent controls, tenants' rights and building of social and affordable housing?

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I have just met families with children who were attending St. Michael's House. Just before they graduated this year, they received a letter telling them there would be no places for them in adult day services. Since then, the families have found out that the HSE knew this was going to be the case for about 12 months beforehand, at least since May 2022. The families were never told. They have never been told why this information was not shared with them. In July, I attended a meeting with the families and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, where they were given assurances that the HSE would be providing places for them and that they would be in place by this September. However, most families still have no places, no concrete information, no dates as to when there will be places made available and no commitments on transport, which is essential. Some families have been told that places will become available when existing service users no longer need them. This is a terrible way to treat people. It shows a severe lack of planning, which is putting the lives of the families in turmoil. It means the individuals without the day services are regressing. What is the Government doing to ensure that children graduating from school have access to adult day services when they need them? What is it doing to ensure planning is done to prevent a situation like this from ever occurring again?

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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If we are really going to deliver the From Poverty to Potential plan, we need to get serious about a multi-agency approach and early intervention must be more than a term we use. That means we will need to see the resources in play. We will be dealing later in this House with the issue of early education and childcare. The likes of Lios na nÓg, Muirhevnamore, will talk about the additional resources they need to stay afloat, particularly because they are dealing with a huge amount of kids presenting with additional needs. I talk about the team project in Muirhevnamore and their after-school project. It is the same in Cox's Demesne. These are projects that are operating in some of the most disadvantaged parts of Dundalk. We need to make things as easy as possible. We need to recognise the work that is being done and make sure we can keep these projects afloat. They are dealing with kids day in, day out, and with multiple levels of projects. I will also mention that there are youth diversion projects being run out of those two centres also. The High Voltage youth diversion programme is one of those pilot early interventions. We need to see that operated across the board. We know we need this to happen as early as possible but we at least need to make sure we keep those projects that are in existence in operation. We can then add those further resources if we want to see real change.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies again for their questions. Deputy McAuliffe mentioned the very positive impact of the free school books scheme in primary schools and how it has relieved the pressure on parents trying to get their kids out for going back to school. I would add to that the hot school meals programme, which I think is very valuable, as well as the increase in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, which helped a lot of people in the months just gone by. It is unfortunate that when we calculate poverty statistics, none of that is taken into account. The back to school clothing and footwear allowance is, but things like free GP care, lower childcare costs, hot school meals, free school books - none of that is taken into account because it is a service or help in kind rather than help in cash. One of things we are going to need is to do more research as to how we can measure these things a little bit better. I do not like the fact that the value of these things does not affect those numbers when really it should, in my view.

Deputy McAuliffe also mentioned small geographical areas that are affected by severe disadvantage. I do not think it is a case of one-size-fits-all. We do have a targeted programme under way for quite some time in the north-east inner city. We have one in Drogheda as well. I think there are plans for Cherry Orchard too. I know Ballymun is under consideration as well and that the Deputy has a particular interest in that part of the city. It is something we need to extend to more areas and to do it on a programme-based, logical basis, based on data, deprivation data in particular. It is something we are working on at the moment.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor raised the issue of hot school meals and suggested they be extended to all schools. I definitely agree with that sentiment. We should not forget that most disadvantaged kids do not attend DEIS schools.

4 o’clock

There are children who may not be classified as being disadvantaged but for whatever reasons their parents do not provide them with the basic meals that they need. I know the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is a particular fan of the hot school meals programme. She wants to expand it and has sought expressions of interest from non-DEIS schools that may be interested in taking up the programme. Again, I am not sure how much will be provided for that in the budget at this stage because nothing has yet been agreed.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor also advocated in favour of extending free school books to secondary schools. I know the Minister, Deputy Foley, has said that is very much part of her medium-to-long-term plan as well. Again, at this stage I cannot say what will or not be in the budget next Tuesday because it is not agreed yet.

On funding for childcare and early years education, funding is now more than €1 billion a year so it has increased very significantly. The focus we want for the next couple of years is on affordability, that is, making childcare more affordable for parents, making it more available, because I know that is a huge issue in large parts of the country, including in my constituency where it is very difficult to get a place at all at the moment, and also raising standards and quality.

With regard to the challenge of family homelessness, which was raised by a number of Deputies, in July, 1,839 families were in State-provided emergency accommodation. That included 3,829 children. That is a shockingly high number. It is already too many. The solution is additional social housing, and lots of it. We are ramping up social housing dramatically at the moment. More social housing was built last year than in any year since the 1970s, and I believe we will exceed that again this year. Social housing benefits everyone, not just those who receive it but it also frees up properties for other people to rent and has a dampening effect on house prices in general. It is a good thing that over the past ten years we have seen a significant increase in social housing, both in raw numbers and percentage terms, and we want that to continue.

In terms of the eviction ban, as Deputies will know unfortunately when it was in place last year, homelessness continued to rise, and it has been rising at a rate of 1% or 2% per month since the ban was lifted.

Housing for All commits to enhancing prevention and early intervention services for children and their families to provide improved tenancy sustainment measures to families experiencing long-term homelessness to help them exit from homelessness and maintain their homes. Budget 2023 allocated €10 million in capital funding for emergency accommodation for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. This will achieve the expansion of Housing First towards the achievement of more than 1,300 new Housing First tenancies.

Guaranteed State investment of more than €4 billion a year in housing is aimed at increasing housing supply. Indicators are positive and show that the Housing for All plan is taking root and supply is increasing. Further measures also being taken to deal with family homelessness are to increase and accelerate the supply of social housing, which I mentioned earlier, an increase in the number of social housing acquisitions under the tenant in situscheme - we aimed to purchase about 1,500 homes from landlords selling up this year, allowing those tenants to transition from housing assistance payment, HAP, and rental accommodation scheme, RAS, to a regular social housing tenancy - and funding in place to provide 11,813 new social homes this year, of which more than 9,000 will be new builds. The Department is also working with local authorities to bring on stream an additional 2,000 beds in homeless emergency accommodation.

Deputy Paul Murphy mentioned Fintan O'Toole's article in The Irish Timestoday. I have not had a chance to read it yet but I will. I know he writes very well on this particular issue.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan raised the issue of adult day services. I know that is a priority for the Department. There have been some real difficulties recruiting staff. I will make sure he gets a more detailed reply in writing from the Department.

Deputy Ó Murchú made a very strong case for projects that are helping children in Dundalk. He made a very good argument for funding to be retained for those services.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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There is less than three minutes left so, with the permission of Deputies, I will not continue, as there would be no time for supplementary questions. There would be barely enough time for the Taoiseach to reply. Is that agreed? Agreed.